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Sunday, 14 June 2015

Form, Genre, and Historicity of the Wilderness Temptations of Jesus in the Gospels: A Response to Jonathan Burke (Part 1)

1.Introduction

Jonathan Burke has written an article
entitled Literary genre of the wilderness temptation which is part of a
larger apologetic series defending the Christadelphians’ non-mythological
exegesis of Satan in the New Testament. He has expressed essentially the same
ideas in another article
which criticizes my own exegesis of the Synoptic wilderness temptation stories
(TS). Burke regards my exegesis as “idiosyncratic”, a “litany of error” which “demonstrates
a complete lack of familiarity with the relevant scholarship.”[1]

Burke’s main point is that the
Synoptic wilderness temptation story should not be read as narrative. While
Burke assumes “genuine historical events underlying the temptation accounts,”
he does not think the passage is to be taken at face value. What then are we to make of the detailed exchange between Jesus and ὁδιάβολοςcontained in Matthew
4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13?

Rather than being read as historical
narrative, the temptation account is generally understood to take the form of
haggadic midrash (non-historical commentary used to illustrate interpretations
of the sacred text).

This is the central claim of
Burke’s short article. Similarly, in his critique of my claim that the Gospels
(including the TS) belong to the narrative genre, Burke states, “This claim is
contradicted by the scholarly consensus; the genre is haggagic [sic] midrash,
not narrative.” However, these are untidy statements, for several reasons. The
first reason is that Burke does not substantiate his claim that the scholarly
consensus regards the TS as belonging to the genre of haggadic midrash. He
cites three scholars, two of which refer to a resemblance between the
temptation story and midrash, and only one of which claims that the TS is haggadic
midrash. Moreover, none of these scholars say that this is the scholarly
consensus, and as we shall see, there is debate about the extent to which
‘midrash’ is a helpful category for understanding the TS.

A further reason why Burke’s
claim is untidy is that it conflates different kinds of biblical criticism. The
claim that the TS is a haggadic midrash belongs largely to form
criticism. This is quite distinct from, for instance, historical criticism,
redaction criticism and narrative criticism. It may help to bridge the gap
between history and the TS as a final literary product, but it is of limited
value in determining the intended meaning of that final product. Similarly, by
his repeated use of the term ‘historical narrative’, Burke conflates two
issues: (1) whether the TS in the Gospels belong to the genre of narrative, and
(2) the historicity of the TS. Along the same lines, some of Burke’s claims are
exceedingly vague: he defends “the idea that Jesus’ temptation was figurative,
symbolic, or visionary.” However, ‘figurative/symbolic’ and ‘visionary’ are two
very different ideas, and Burke does not state which of them he endorses. Nor
does Burke clarify whether this claim refers to Jesus’ temptation historically,
in pre-Gospel tradition, or in the text of the Gospels (or all of the above?)
Nor would the presence of symbolic or visionary elements in the TS conflict
with it being a narrative, or with its historicity.

My thesis here is that the
temptation stories in their final, canonical form in all three Synoptic Gospels[2]
constitute a mythical narrative which the writers depict as actual events in Jesus’
life and which introduce a conflict between Jesus and Satan which continues through
the story. It is in this form that the TS is authoritative for the teaching of
the Church. I will further argue that, provided the interpreter presupposes a
worldview which allows for the supernatural, there is no reason to doubt the basic
historicity of the narrative.

2.The TS as haggadic midrash

Among the most detailed recent
critical studies on the TS has been Robbins' monograph, The Testing of Jesus in Q. He discusses two terms –
midrash and myth – which in his view

have added as much smoke as substance to
the discussion… Most scholars who talk about this narrative use both of these
terms, but sometimes they mean different things by them, and sometimes it would
seem that they mean nothing.[3]

He attributes the identification
of the TS as haggadic midrash to Gerhardsson. He notes that “There is a
confusion of referents among scholars when some speak of midrash as a literary
genre and others speak of it as an exegetical method.”[4]
Robbins subsequently declares:

I will largely refrain from referring to
the Temptation Narrative as a midrash, though it is not because I feel it is
entirely inappropriate. It is simply that midrash brings a messiness with it
that seriously impugns its ability to serve as a useful index of literary
function or form.[5]

Robbins goes on to refer to Chilton’s
study, which states, “When one applies the word ‘Midrash’ generically, it is
patent that the New Testament does not belong to this category.”[6]
Chilton further criticizes Gerhardsson’s term ‘haggadic midrash’ (adopted by
Burke) because it suggests a specific sub-genre yet Gerhardsson offers no other
examples of it from the New Testament or rabbinic literature!

Robbins is prepared to
countenance the TS as ‘midrash’ (lower case m) which is used in scholarship for
“just about every kind of Jewish interpretation of Scripture,”[7]
but he is not prepared to refer to them as ‘Midrash’ (upper case M), meaning “a
very specific generic category of Jewish exegesis and exposition.”[8]

Another challenge to midrashic
reading of the TS comes from Kloppenborg, who analyzes the pericope as it
hypothetically existed in Q. He emphasizes that this dialogue has a “relatively
detailed narrative framework” and that the TS belong “to a narrative genre
which uses speech as the servant of the narrative.”[9]

He then turns his attention to
form-critical matters. He notes of this pericope,

Some regard it as a sayings form and
hence as little different from the rest of Q. Albertz called it a controversy
story,[10]
while others compared it with rabbinic exegetical debates or with haggadic
midrashim.[11]

He challenges all of these
claims. Of particular note, he states, “In view of the dramatis personae, the
mythic setting and the fact that the purpose is not exegesis, the
analogy of a ‘rabbinic dispute’ is not apposite.”[12]
This clearly runs contrary to Burke’s claim that “the aim of the temptation
account is to explicate the relevance of Biblical passages to Jesus’ messianic
mission”. Kloppenborg regards the TS as “a scribal creation” rather than a
product of oral tradition, and in terms of form he prefers “the motif of the
temptation or ordeal of the wise and faithful man”, such as those in the
biblical and extra-biblical stories about Abraham and Job.[13]

As for the (hypothetical)
positioning of this pericope within Q, Kloppenborg remarks on its “conformity
with a typical biographical pattern” which for him confirms “that Q was moving toward
a narrative or biographical cast.”[14]
In summary, already within Q, the TS has a mythic setting and approaches a
biographical, narrative framework.

Gibson likewise notes, “It is
often claimed that form-critically, the closest parallels to the Q temptation
story are to be found in the accounts over the Law or the interpretation of
Scripture in Haggadic midrash.”[15]
He allows a limited element of truth in such claims, provided we limit
ourselves to the dialogue part of the TS (though he does not claim that this dialogue is a haggadic midrash). However, he argues that

when we take the story in its entirety
and consider form-critically and from a literary critical and thematic point of
view, the shape given it both by the notice of the Baptism (Mt. 3.13,
16-17//Lk. 3.21-22) and by the frame of Mt. 4.1-2, 11//Lk 4.1-2, 13, then the
story’s closest and most complementary parallels are those stories in biblical
and related literature given over to portraying a ‘servant of God’ or the pious
person subjected to trials in order to determine or display the nature or
extent of his or her faithfulness[16]

Gibson further argues that “the
narrative theme of Mt. 4.1-11/Lk. 4.1-13 – Jesus being subjected to a
pre-ministry peirasmos carried out by the Devil – is not original to Q,
but has been taken up by Q from an early, pre-Q, even possibly pre-Easter,
tradition.”[17] He regards Mark’s TS as probably independent of
that in Q.[18]
Like Kloppenborg, however, Gibson takes the TS as it now appears in Matthew and
Luke as “an original composition, created ‘at one go’ in its present form” (in Q).[19]

Finally, Stein, in listing various options for the source of the TS, states, "It is unlikely that the temptations simply arose out of midrashic reflections on various OT passages, such as Deut 6:10-16; 8:1-9:22."[20]

In short, the TS in its pre-canonical form was broadly 'midrashic' inasmuch as it contained exegesis of OT texts, but there is little support for viewing its literary genre as 'Midrash'. Matthew and Luke incorporated this traditional material within a wider biographical narrative about Jesus. Some formal similarity between the TS and midrash may be acknowledged, but this form-critical observation is not decisive for questions of narrative function in the Gospels nor of historicity.

[1]
Unfortunately, Burke has chosen to interact only with a blog post in which I
briefly outlined ten exegetical points without citing any sources. In the post,
I referred the reader to more detailed treatments of these points which do
cite scholarly sources (here
and here).
Burke neglects to cite either of these, so it is not clear whether he has even bothered
to read them!

[2]
We will, however, for the most part confine our discussion to the Matthean and
Lukan versions.

[10]
Stern is another advocate of this view; he likens the TS to “exegetical duels
between rabbis and heretics” found in rabbinic literature (Stern, D. (2011).
Midrash and Parables in the New Testament. In A.-J. Levine & M.Z. Brettler
(Eds.), The Jewish Annotated New Testament (pp. 565-570). Oxford: Oxford
University press, p. 567).

2 comments:

- Burke's original study failed to engage critically with different views on the value of the category of midrash for New Testament studies in general and the study of the TS in particular. My response pointed this out and it remains a valid criticism of Burke's work. For Burke to simply cite more scholars who support the identification of the TS as midrash simply shows that he has not appreciated the need for critical engagement with the literature.

- In my response, I allowed that the TS in its pre-canonical form was broadly 'midrashic', but cautioned that this form-critical observation is of limited value in reconstructing the historicity and narrative function of the Gospel TS. Burke has so far failed to show how this form-critical observation enables us to identify ho diabolos in the TS as the yetser hara rather than a supernatural being. His whole purpose in introducing the category of midrash seems to be to give himself more latitude in his interpretation of ho diabolos, but he has not justified this approach. I showed that many of the important midrashic texts regarded as possible parallels to the TS involve a supernatural tempter. (Burke takes this as a 'hermeneutic of convenience' but is simply criticism from two different angles: first, criticism of his uncritical adoption of the category 'midrash'; second, criticism of his inadequate application of this category once it had been adopted.)

- Burke accuses me of having "concealed" Robbins' allowance of the possibility that the TS qualifies as a "narrative Midrash." He then alerts us that this is his own view of the TS genre (although he has not mentioned the term previously). The other possible examples Robbins gives of "narrative Midrash" in the Gospels (the baptism of John, and the sermon of Jesus - see Robbins 2007: 14n27) clearly refer to things which the Evangelists present John and Jesus as having done and said - i.e. part of the narrative. The significance of 'Midrash' in these examples is not that they are other than 'straightforward historical narrative' but that they parallel and retell events from Exodus. Hence, if Burke is looking to this category for support in his desire to interpret the TS as things that happened, but not literally, he is giving the category a completely novel meaning without any scholarly support from Robbins or his source here, Macdonald.

- Burke criticizes me for my "lack of awareness of the relevant scholarly literature" for criticizing his use of the term "historical narrative" which conflates two issues (genre and historicity). To show that this is a "standard term for a specific kind of narrative," he cites five sources which use the term "historical narrative", only one of which relates to the Gospels, and all of which he has probably mined using a keyword search in Google Books. Given the massive scholarly debate over historicity in the Gospels, it is important to be completely clear in the use of terminology. 'Historical' could mean the text is historically accurate, or that its writer intended it to be regarded as historically accurate. Burke himself seems to take it more in the sense of 'literal'; hence, he affirms that the TS are historical and that they are narrative, but denies that they are historical narrative!

- Burke concludes his response to Part One by citing a long list of scholars without providing full bibliographic information. His closing comments also fail to take into account Robbins' distinction between 'midrash' and 'Midrash'.

About

Welcome to the personal blog of Thomas Farrar. Content consists mainly of biblical studies, theology and Church history written at a semi-technical level.

About the author

I am a Canadian residing in Cape Town, South Africa. I was received into the Roman Catholic Church at the 2017 Easter Vigil, having previously been a Baptist and, before that, a Christadelphian. I am married to Ayanda and have two stepsons, Smiso and Sphe.A statistics lecturer by profession, I hold an Honours degree in theology and have published in peer-reviewed biblical studies journals. My curriculum vitae can be downloaded here. My hobbies include playing the euphonium, choral singing, reading and, of course, blogging.